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Wednesday, 17 May 2017

SHORT-TOED LARK & GOLDEN ORIOLE

Went down to Cogden Beach(NT car park) to search for the SHORT-TOED LARK reported recently. Walking east towards West Bexington, about 800m no sign of the bird until brief flight views and distant views among the seakale with Linnets, Yellowhammer and 2 Wheatear. Shortly after continuing along the beach with no further sign , we decided to have a small picnic on the beach and see what was moving about on the beach & nearby scrub. Few minutes later I looked up and the Short-toed Lark was right in front of us about 20-25 metres away with several Linnet giving smashing views feeding & walking about. A superb bird & my 1st for the UK.
With light rain drizzle we headed onto Portland where we had excellent views of the 1st summer male GOLDEN ORIOLE present around the Observatory garden & Crown Estate Fields. Though very poor record images obtained as bird remained in centre of fields throughout the evening giving good flight views, some song & eating caterpillars!! So pleased I brought my scope as zoomed in views were superb!! What a day, Short-toed Lark & Golden Oriole!! It even got better when a pod of 6 Bottle-nosed Dolphins passed close off the Bill while seawatching and breached extremely close offshore for about 40mins. The day ended well with a beautiful sunset to the west!!